layman's space

N’PADA REMOTE HAMLET WHERE GOVT DOLES A FAR CRY Tuesday, 18 February 2014 | AJIT PANDA | NUAPADA | in  Bhubaneswar 1 2 3 4 5 0 Ratni and Bunu, two small children of remote Khadang village in Nuapada district, were having lunch with their mother in front of their house.The food consisted of only rice mixed with water. There was no curry. Nor was anything added to the rice, not even salt. Ehen asked what curry they were taking; their answer was “Abgi” which means “simply rice.”Further, they revealed that they had not eaten curry for more than a month. There are over 100 such people in Khadang village for whom curry is not their cup of tea. Rice is affordable because it is available for `1 per kg, but curry is unthinkable, given the high prices of vegetables. The only source of income for the people of Khadang, which is located in the Sunabeda plateau bordering Chhatishgarh, is bamboo basket weaving. These poor basket weavers belong to a tribal commun...

STATE NEEDS TO SEND PROPOSAL AFRESH, SAYS UNION SECY Wednesday, 05 February 2014 | AJIT PANDA | NUAPADA | in  Bhubaneswar 1 2 3 4 5 0 Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs Secretary Dr Hrushikesh Panda conducted a meeting with the Government officials on his one-day visit here on Monday. Panda reviewed various development programmes undertaken in the district for the development of tribals, especially in the Maoist affected belt of the district. “Don’t introduce hybrid crops like paddy and maize in tribal areas like Sunabeda,” instructed Panda to the agriculture officials present in the meeting. He advised the officials to take up programmes which are sustainable in nature and warned against high use of chemical fertilizers like nitrogen in cultivation of maize and hybrid paddy. Discussing on livestock development programme in the district, Panda told that the officials should be careful while upgrading the species of cattle by artificial insemination. He...

TRIBAL STATUS FOR PAHARIAS STILL A WILD GOOSE CHASE Thursday, 23 January 2014 | AJIT PANDA | NUAPADA | in  Bhubaneswar 1 2 3 4 5 0 The Paharias or Kamars are one of the primitive vulnerable tribal groups (PVTGs) in Chhattisgarh and MP, but in Odisha they are considered to be non-tribals. The Tribes Advisory Council (TAC), under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has recommended for Scheduled Tribe status to the Paharia tribe, but the issue is pending with the Central Government for more than last 10 years. This has spread resentment among the Paharias, who have threatened to boycott the forthcoming elections unless they are accorded the status at a State-level convention at Bargaon village of Nuapada district. Over 1,500 Paharia representatives attended the convention to discuss about their problems and suggest an action plan to the Government for their development. The prominent of all issues as expressed by most of the participants o...

N’PADA SICK LABOURER FORCED TO WORK IN UP KILN DIES Wednesday, 08 January 2014 | AJIT PANDA | NUAPADA | in  Bhubaneswar 1 2 3 4 5 0 Dayabati Tandi of Sadhu Pandripani village of Nuapada district had taken an advance of `51,000 in three installments from labour contractor Bhima Sahu of Jenjra village to meet the cost of marriage of her younger son Premlal. She had pledged to work in a brick kiln in UP  along with the newly married son and other family members after 15 days of the marriage.  However, the contractor came to the house of Dayabati after four days of the marriage on December 16 and asked the family members to go with him. Premlal was suffering from fever and was not in a condition to move. But the contractor forced them to start the journey. “We pleaded before the contractor to give us some time, but he did not listen to us,” lamented Dayabati. All of them instantly had to move with the contractor to the nearest railway station...

144 MIGRANT RESCUED IN B’NGIR, NUAPADA Sunday, 05 January 2014 | PNS | BALANGIR / NUAPADA | in  Bhubaneswar         0 The Balangir and Nuapada district administrations have rescued as many as 144 migrant workers from several places, including from a few buses, on Friday and Saturday. Acting on a tip-off, a special squad under the direct supervision of the Patnagarh Sub-Collector raided three buses on Saturday running between Kantabnjhi and Patnagarh and rescued 90 migrant labourers from these vehicles. “We had information that some labourers were being transported to neighbouring States in buses to work in brick kilns. So, we formed a squad and conducted raids. We too rescued 27 workers from Mandalpur square near Belapada Talabandar, who were waiting for their vehicles,” said Tripathy. The Sub-Collector stated that the rescued persons were sent to their respective villages and would be provided with job works under the MGNREGS and other wel...

N’PADA ADMN CHALKS OUT STRATEGY TO CHECK MIGRATION Saturday, 04 January 2014 | AJIT PANDA | NUAPADA | in  Bhubaneswar 1 2 3 4 5 0 The district administration of Nuapada has decided to take a multidimensional approach to check distress migration from the district. The strategy was planned in a meeting of district and block level officials, convened by District Collector Jaykumar V.  “We are not saying that migration can be stopped at one go, but we are sure it can be regulated and monitored through an institutional mechanism that we are going to set in the district,” said the Collector after the meeting.   As the first step towards achieving the objective, the administration has decided to form labour unions which will be guided by the Village Labour Leaders (VLL). The VLLs will be motivated to apply for labour licence. All the migrating labourers will be registered with the VLLs. The PRI members and the Anganwadi workers will inform the ...

500 BONDED LABOURERS RESCUED IN NUAPADA Friday, 20 December 2013 | PNS | NUAPADA | in  Bhubaneswar 1 2 3 4 5 0 The Nuapada district administration, with the help of the local police, rescued over 500 bonded labourers from THE Khariar Road railway station on Thursday afternoon. Acting on a tip-off, a team of local police and senior district officials raided the railway station and rescued the labourers. The rescued labourers belonging to Nuapada, Bargarh and Chhattisgarh were being taken to Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh by some brokers to work there as bonded labourers, the police said. RESCUED 315 LABOURERS TRAPPED AGAIN IN NUAPADA Saturday, 21 December 2013 | PNS | NUAPADA | in  Bhubaneswar 1 2 3 4 5 0 Surprisingly, 315 of 615 bonded labourers rescued by the police team on Thursday were again trapped by the labour contractors from the midst of their journey to village in Nuapada district on Friday. On a tip-off, the police tea...